THREAD: A colleague and I organized a roundtable for CPSA. We included academics & practitioners. Three participants (two practitioners and a legal scholar) would have attended only this roundtable at a three-day conference. They were not presenting their own work, only commenting on ours. 1/n

What does a Commons majority mean for the Carney government, particularly when it comes to committee scrutiny? We examined this issue in depth in our book Overseen or Overlooked: www.sup.org/books/politi...

The latest from me in @thewalrus.ca Has the UCP intentionally left the barn open and set the wolves amongst the chickens? thewalrus.ca/can-alberta-...

Ottawa gives South Korean, German submarine builders opportunity to revise bids www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

New post: the Supreme Court of Canada recently said that constitutional interpretation is nothing like statutory interpretation; but not that long ago it was saying the opposite. An explanation, let alone consistency, is apparently too much to hope for. doubleaspect.blog/2026/04/09/n...

US, Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire. Some thoughts: -Both had strong reasons to want the war to stop (very costly for each, even if in a very different way) -Their demands in coming talks for a durable ceasefire are VERY distant, & both will be intransigent -So the risk of renewed violence is real

Thanks to the Faculty of Public and Global Affairs @carleton.ca for profiling my academic research and policy-focused work, including my current SSHRC project on the powers of Commanders-in-Chief, which is alarmingly relevant today: carleton.ca/fpga/2026/po...

For the most Easter readers: what could Canada contribute to securing the Strait of Hormuz in the event of a ceasefire? open.substack.com/pub/theline/...

I look at what Canada could do to help open the Strait of Hormuz over at The Line: open.substack.com/pub/theline/...

In which @plagasse.bsky.social asks whether the more realistic role for middle powers is quietly cleaning up the messes created by a hegemon that acts first and (if you're lucky) thinks later www.readtheline.ca/p/philippe-l...

I have another new paper out with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute about the Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Forces, this time specifically about CAFCYBERCOM. www.cgai.ca/th_pp_everyt...

I look at what Canada could do to help open the Strait of Hormuz over at The Line: open.substack.com/pub/theline/...

A good discussion of the trade offs Canada faces in spending 3.5% of GDP on defence. cdhowe.org/publication/...

John Blaxland will be talking about Australia-Canada relations over lunch on 1 April 2026 at CGAI. If you're interested in attending, please let me know! www.cgai.ca/after_the_ru...

John Blaxland will be talking about Australia-Canada relations over lunch on 1 April 2026 at CGAI. If you're interested in attending, please let me know! www.cgai.ca/after_the_ru...

Remarkable story from Denmark's nat'l broadcaster. "When Danish soldiers were flown to Greenland in January...they brought explosives so they could destroy, among other things, the runways in Nuuk & Kangerlussuaq [to] prevent US mil aircraft from landing" www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...

It may appear strange today that a member of the House of Lords could serve as Prime Minister. However, as @kathrynrix.bsky.social has explored in a new article, the 19th century saw more Prime Ministers leading from the Lords than the Commons.

Critique Poilievre all you want for this choice, but let's rid ourselves of the notion that opposition leaders regularly held clearances in the past. Parliamentarians who aren't part of the executive rarely held clearances up to a couple years ago.

"President Emmanuel Macron said the warships would help protect France’s allies in the region, and could be part of a force to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. He said the war could continue for “several days, maybe several weeks.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/w...

Does the Cdn govt need approval from the House of Commons to deploy the military overseas? No. Have govts sought that approval before? Symbolically yes, in some cases, but not consistently. Is there a constitutional convention of parliamentary approval? No. ottawacitizen.com/news/politic...

This is now inaccurate on royal succession in Canada post-Motard. Canada simply follows the British law. When we pass our own legilsation, it's merely to express assent, as per the Statute of Westminster 1931 convention. The succession would change in law for Canada whether we assented or not.

My newest research project is on the evolution of supreme military command authority and the powers of Commanders-in-Chief. As an historical institutionalist, the starting hypothesis is that the Roman concepts of imperium and imperator remain useful....

CDS: Stating a negative on Eric Fury twice. Bluesky: Per se?!

A likely scenario: PMO: We're not getting involved in any way. CAF: (looking up for scenario planning)....Um, Prime Minister, we might hypothetically in the extreme need to do x, y, z to address second order consequences in the region. PMO: Ah.

(cough)

Starmer: We're not joining the US/Israeli war, but we are deploying forces to protect UK citizens and assist 10 regional allies who are affected. Cdn Bluesky: The UK is joining the American war!

Our new podcast episode dropped: on #BattleRhythm @profwhw.bsky.social and I discuss the Iran war and also the fight between a tech company and the Pentagon over the use of their AI and then @plagasse.bsky.social Interviews LTG Boivan who runs all CAF ops cdsn.substack.com/p/episode-41...

You may have heard about Canada's peacekeeping mission to Cyprus that's been ongoing since 1964 and has attempted to keep these two apart.

You don't always need Article 5 to help defend an ally. You can assist an ally if they ask. Turkey is a NATO ally, for example.

He's saying we're not going to participate in offensive actions against Iran, but might need to defend our allies. Chill, people.

Be it resolved that Prime Minister Carney's government is a government like any other, weighed down by inevitable inconsistencies, internal disagreements and bureaucratic politics, and intractable trade-offs.

With a mixed submarine fleet back on the table, here's my take on the idea from September: philippelagasse.substack.com/p/two-types-...

Worth noting the evaluation criteria for CPSP: Capability and acquisition cost will only count for 35%. The real money will be in sustainment, which explains why it ranks so high (50%). All those economics partnerships will only count for 15%. www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

I think bluesky would be roughly 300% better if people here were capable of reading “this is an assessment of the empirical reality of a situation” without assuming it comes with an implicit “and therefore I endorse the reality of that situation”

🤷🏻‍♂️

Now in wide release, my latest YouTube episode where @plagasse.bsky.social and I talk about what the government has laid out with their Defence Industrial Strategy. #cdnpoli

New episodes released early for C$7+ subscribers. This week I'm with @plagasse.bsky.social to delve into the Defence Industrial Strategy. #cdnpoli

Good day to re-read these @plagasse.bsky.social pieces on Defence Against Help Where a large power starts claiming a smaller country is failing and can’t manage its own affairs, so the large power must step in under the guise of ‘help’ ras-nsa.ca/canada-must-... www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Oh...royal succession is in the news...

A second post on Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy. This time, I look at how colleges and universities fit within the DIS. Since this is Bluesky, I'll assure you that I address student and faculty opposition to working with defence. open.substack.com/pub/philippe...

A second post on Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy. This time, I look at how colleges and universities fit within the DIS. Since this is Bluesky, I'll assure you that I address student and faculty opposition to working with defence. open.substack.com/pub/philippe...

New at Debating Canadian Defence: open.substack.com/pub/philippe...

Happy to share the Call for Papers for the Ninth Annual Spring Workshop of the Courts & Politics Research Group, to be hosted at the University Guelph on May 8, 2026. www.courtsandpolitics.org/Events.php

New at Debating Canadian Defence: open.substack.com/pub/philippe...

All else being equal: Non-bankrupt universities > bankrupt universities.

Trying to model these ON funding changes based on imperfect data is annoying. My very quick take is that by 2029-30, ON institutions will likely have recovered all the real *public* funding they have lost since 2012. But total domestic income will still be down b/c of long tuition freeze. I think